Sunset over Nashville (my photo)

Cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47003541

A 12-person jury has been seated in the federal corruption trial of former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his ex-chief of staff Cade Cothren.

Lawyers late into the afternoon April 23 were still debating alternates for the jury, but the trial is expected to move forward April 24 with opening statements.

Casada and Cothren each face up to 20 years in prison for charges including bribery and money laundering tied to an alleged kickback scheme involving a fake political mailer company.

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New reports have begun to circulate among city lawmakers and planners that set the table for major housing reforms. Conclusions describe a city lacking sufficient supply and housing diversity, a problem attributed to limited and outdated zoning restrictions ripe for reform. City planners are expected to deliver two more major studies — a unified housing strategy and an ecological conservation report — as well as formal policy recommendations to the Metro Council in June.

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So much is going on in the world, but I think it’s important to take time to savor simple moments of pure pleasure — like watching state Rep. Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) complaining about people at the state Capitol wearing wires.

Y’all know that I am gleefully following the soap opera that is the Phoenix Solutions scandal. For those of you who haven’t been following, let me try to quickly bring you up to speed. Oh Lord, even that sentence makes me laugh. OK, back in the day, Republican Rep. Glen Casada was the state's House speaker. Casada was like if an oil slick and a used car salesman had a baby. He had an aide, Cade Cothren, who was like if the cocaine bear and Gavin McInnes had a baby and abandoned it before teaching it about good facial hair. Casada is all, “I will make my friends and enemies kneel before me on my quest for power.” Cothren’s out here dropping all kinds of racist and sexist slurs, and for reasons that have never been adequately explained, regularly calling Casada “daddy” and helping Casada on his quest.

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The upcoming season will feature eight Nashville premieres, including the following:

The Wiz - Sept. 23-28, 2025
The Outsiders - Oct. 14-19, 2025
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast - Nov. 4-16, 2025
Suffs – March 3-8, 2026
Back To The Future: The Musical - March 17-22, 2026
Some Like It Hot - April 21-26, 2026
Water for Elephants - May 12-17, 2026
Hamilton - June 17-28, 2026

The season will also include three limited return engagement presentations, including:

Les Misérables - Jan. 20-25, 2026
Six - Feb. 3-8, 2026
The Book of Mormon - June 2-7, 2026

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Following the recent Antioch High School shooting, MNPS installed Evolv Technologies concealed weapons scanners at the front doors of the school as a pilot program to assess how the technology works and the feasibility of implementing it district-wide.

But depending on how the technology is being used, there’s a chance it would not have detected the pistol in the Antioch High School shooter’s backpack.

“Evolv is saying that it can automatically differentiate weapons from common objects — you know, it’s going to have this seamless, touchless experience,” Don Maye, head of operations at the security and surveillance research group IPVM, told the Banner. “But in reality, you either have to lower the sensitivity settings so low that weapons will go through, or you put it so high that most metal objects will alert it, and that really seems to defeat the value proposition of Evolv.”

Evolv’s concealed weapons scanners detect ferrous metals — metals containing iron as the main component. However, unlike a traditional metal detector, the sensors are supposed to distinguish between weapons and harmless everyday items instead of alerting when they detect metal. Unlike traditional metal detectors, which require people to file through one by one, emptying their pockets and bags of any metal items, Evolv scanners are meant to allow large numbers of people to quickly enter through security checkpoints without having to discard harmless metal objects.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn (WTVF) — A shooting that began as a robbery in the parking lot of Green Hills Mall Tuesday afternoon resulted in one person’s death and created a massive traffic nightmare for thousands of commuters.

Metro Nashville Police (MNPD) say the incident began around 2:30 p.m. when a man carrying high-end Louis Vuitton shopping bags was confronted by a suspect in the mall's parking lot. The suspect, later identified as 30-year-old Omari Moore, approached the unidentified shopper while a second man waited in a Tesla nearby.

According to witness accounts and surveillance footage, Moore got out of the car and attempted to rob the shopper.

"We can obviously see the confrontation between the shopper and the passenger of the vehicle," said Don Aaron, MNPD Public Affairs Director.

After the robbery attempt, the driver of the Tesla circled back to pick up Moore. It is at this point that police believe the driver was shot.

Moore, who is a convicted felon, claims he was unaware that his accomplice had been shot.

As the vehicle pulled away, the victim reportedly chased after it and threw an extended gun magazine at the Tesla. The magazine and two spent shell casings were recovered by investigators from the parking lot.

The suspects took off from the scene — the driver of the Tesla lost control and crashed into a tree along the I-65 northbound entrance ramp from I-440 shortly after fleeing the mall parking lot.

After the crash, MNPD says Moore got out of the wrecked car and threw an automatic pistol missing a magazine, which was later recovered by police. He was arrested at the scene after an officer witnessed the crash. The driver, whose identity has not been released, was found deceased with at least one gunshot wound.

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